LEWIS MORGAN has pledged to succeed where outstanding Scottish youngsters Scott Allan and Ryan Christie have failed - and establish himself the Celtic first team next season.
Morgan, the St Mirren winger who was signed for a £300,000 fee back in January before being loaned back to the Paisley club for the remainder of the season, admitted he is looking forward to getting started at Parkhead this summer.
The PFA Scotland Championship Player of the Year knows it will be a huge step up in standard and fully appreciates he will have his work cut out getting a start ahead of the likes of James Forrest, Jonny Hayes, Callum McGregor, Charly Musonda and Scott Sinclair.
Allan, who was bought from Hibernian for £275,000 in 2015 and Christie, who joined from Inverness Caledonian Thistle in a £500,000 agreement shortly afterwards, were widely tipped to do great things at the Scottish champions.
However, both midfielders have found it difficult in Glasgow. Allan has been loaned out to Rotherham, Dundee and Hibs, where he is currently playing, in the last three years. His manager Brendan Rodgers has revealed will be moved on in the summer. Meanwhile, forward Christie has joined Aberdeen in temporary deals in the last two seasons where he has done superbly.
Morgan, who was Jack Ross’s outstanding performer as St Mirren romped to a resounding Championship success to clinch a return to the top flight after a three year absence, is under no illusions how demanding it will be to get game time at his new club.
Yet, the 21-year-old feels that working under Rodgers and training alongside footballers like Scott Brown, Leigh Griffiths and Kieran Tierney on a daily basis will help him to improve further and is optimistic he can get involved both domestically and in Europe.
“I watched Celtic last Sunday against Rangers and they were outstanding all over the park,” he said. “I know they have many options and there are proper top players there.
“I am going to really need to push myself to get into it, but these are players that I can learn from and take my game to the next level. I’m looking forward to it and, if I wasn’t confident I could get in there, I would not have made the move.
“I know it’ll be tough, but I’ll be working with a management team and a squad of players who want to improve and I’ll look to keep up with them as well.”
Morgan continued “Every player is different. When I signed, I didn’t think of others who have signed and not managed to make it work out. I just believed in the myself and that I could go and make an impact.
“I do believe that. The manager also spoke well to me. He told me what he wants from me and it is something that I’m looking forward to working in.
“Not just at Celtic, but I know from the manager’s past experiences that he has always wanted to bring through young players. He’s said that he wouldn’t be signing me for the sake of it.”
Morgan has been encouraged by how much game time Rodgers has given Jack Hendry, the 22-year-old centre half he signed from Dundee for £1.5 million back in January, in the last few months.
“It’s great what Jack has done,” he said. “Obviously, he’s gone into Celtic making a big move from Dundee and he’s done brilliantly to get into the team and play as many minutes as he has done.
“Celtic are the top team in the country at the moment and it is the nature of it that it hard to break into the line-up, but I just need to push myself on and bang the door down to get it.”
Morgan revealed he had remained in touch with Rodgers despite returning to St Mirren to see out the remainder the 2017/18 campaign and told how the Northern Irishman is keen for him to take it easy during the close season so he is fit and fresh for the new
“I’ve kept in contact with the manager,” he said. “I texted to congratulate on their success last Sunday and it was vice-versa. Hopefully, I can rest up and relax in the summer.
“I’m going into Celtic to get assessed so that they can prepare a pre-season, but I’m not sure what is happening with training. I think they are keen for me to rest up.
“It’s been a long season playing each week and they want to make sure I am going to be ready for next year.”
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